Context Effects in Children's Selection and Use of Simple Arithmetic Strategies

Six- and 7-year-old children computed moves on a board game from dice over 3 sessions (game context) and also solved simple, aurally presented addition problems (academic context), corresponding to the dice rolls made in the game. Children displayed multiple and variable use of addition strategies in both the game and academic contexts, although there were significant differences in the strategies used and patterns of performance between the 2 contexts. Children used more sophisticated strategies and made more errors during the academic than the game context. The relation between strategy use, variability, and errors also varied between the 2 conditions, as did the selection of strategies children used for solving identical addition problems. These findings support selectionist models of cognitive development and illustrate the potent role of context in young children's strategy use.